Identity Politics in the Public
Realm
Identity Politics
Groups are politicized on the basis of gender,
ethnicity, language, religion, race, indigeneity
to make claims for resources or opportunities
based on some aspect of their identity.
Normative Political theory
…explores how claims to the recognition and
accommodation of identity relate to broader
principles of justice, freedom, human rights,
and democratic citizenship
(see Appiah 2005, Gutmann 2003, Kymlicka 1995,
Taylor 1994, Tully 1995; for a notable exception and
dissent, see Barry 2001).
Empirical Social Science
…explores the social and political processes
which actually underpin the politicization of
identity groups
(see, e.g. Deveaux 2008, Jung 2008, Tilley 2002, etc.).
Risks of Identity Politics and Political Mobilization
1. Entrenching elite hierarchies
Deveaux 2008, Shachar 2001, Song 2007
State accommodation can embolden group elites to exert
pressure on their members to respect traditional lines of
authority
or
State refusal to accommodate can trigger cultural
defensiveness or reactivism which reinforces power of
conservative traditions (and elites) to shield the group from
outside pressures
2. Cooptation/domestication
Alfred 1999, Coultard 2007, see Brysk 2000
Risk that identity politics offers minor adjustments while
diverting resources of vulnerable groups away from political
struggles that are more directly relevant to addressing
underlying causes of injustice
3. Essentialism and stereotyping
Phillips 2007
Identity groups will press their claims by playing into
mainstream stereotypes and thereby encouraging narrow
and stereotypical understandings of what constitutes their
identities
4. Social fragmentation/group polarization
Miller 1995, Putnam 2007
Identity politics encourages people to mobilize on the basis of
what distinguishes them rather than unites them and it
undermines social trust
How do public institutions respond
to the risks of identity politics?
Factors that make a difference to
institutional responses
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History matters
International influences
Democratic engagement/effective participation
Institutional reflexivity/humility
References
Appiah, Kwame Anthony (2005) The Ethics of Identity. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press.
Miller, David (1995) On Nationality Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barry, Brian (2001) Culture and Equality: An Egalitarian Critique of
Moore, Margaret (2006) ‘Identity claims and identity politics: A limited
Multiculturalism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
defence’, in Ignor Primoratz and Aleksandor Pavković (eds.), Identity,
Brysk, Alison (2000) From Tribal Village to Global Village: Indian Rights and
Delf-determination, and Secession. London: Ashgate, 27-44
International Relations in Latin America. Palo Alto: Stanford University Phillips Anne (2007) Multiculturalism without Culture. Princeton: Princeton
Press.
University Press.
Copp, David (2002) ‘Social Unity and the Identity of Persons’. The Journal of Povinelli, Elizabeth (1998) ‘The state of shame: Australian multiculturalism
Political Philosophy, 10/4: 365-91.
and the crisis of Indigenous citizenship’. Critical Inquiry, 24: 575-610.
Deveaux, Monique (2006) Gender and Justice in Multicultural Liberal States. Putnam, Robert D. 2007 “E Pluribus Unum: Diversity and Community in the
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Twenty-first Century The 2006 Johan Skytte Prize Lecture.”
Eisenberg, Avigail (2009) Reasons of Identity: A Normative Guide to the
Scandanavian Political Studies 30(2): 137-74.
Political and Legal Assessment of Identity Claims Oxford: Oxford
Shachar, Ayelet (2001) Multicultural Jurisdictions. Cambridge: UK:
University Press.
Cambridge University Press.
Fournier , Pascale (2002) "The Ghettoization of Difference in Canada: "Rape Song, Sarah (2007) Justice, Gender and the Politics of Multiculturalism.
by Culture" or the Danger of a Cultural Defense in Criminal Law Trials "
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Manitoba Law Journal 29: 81-113
Taylor, Charles (1994) Multiculturalism and the ‘Politics of Recognition’.
Friedlander, Judith (2006) Being Indian in Hueyapan. Revised ed. London:
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Macmillan/Palgrave.
Tilley, Viriginia Q. (2002. ‘New help or new hegemony? The transnational
Gutmann, Amy (2003) Identity in Democracy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton
indigenous peoples’ movement and ‘being Indian’ in El Salvador’.
University Press.
Journal of Latin American Studies, 34: 525-54.
James, Matt (2006) Misrecognized Materialists: Social Movements in
Tully, James. (1995). Strange Multiplicity: Constitutionalism in the Age of
Canadian Constitutional Politics UBC Press.
Diversity. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.
Jung, Courtney (2008) The Moral Force of Indigenous Politics: Critical
Volpp, Leti (2000) ‘Blaming culture for bad behaviour’, Yale Journal of Law
Liberalism and the Zapatistas. New York: Cambridge University Press.
and the Humanities, 12: 89-116.
Koopmans, Ruud (2006) “Trade-Offs Between Equality and Difference: The Waldron, Jeremy. (2000). ‘Cultural identity and civic responsibility’. In Will
Crisis of Dutch Multiculturalism in Cross-National Perspective”, Danish
Kymlicka and Wayne Norman (eds.), Citizenship in Diverse Societies.
Institute for International Affairs, Brief , December 2006).
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 155-74.
Kymlicka, Will (1995) Multicultural Citizenship. Oxford: Oxford University
Warren, Mark ed. 1999 Democracy and Trust, Cambridge University Press.
Press.
Weinstock, Daniel (2006) ‘Is “identity” a danger to democracy?’, in Igor
Merry, Sally Engle (2001) “Change Rights, Changing Culture.” Culture and
Primoratz and Aleksandar Pavkovic (eds.), Identity, Self-determination
Rights: Anthropological Perspectives, Jane K. Cowan, Marie-Bénédicte
and Secession. London: Ashgate, 15-26.
Dembour and Richard A. Wilson eds. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
1. Introduction: Bringing Institutions Back In
Avigail Eisenberg and Will Kymlicka
2. Democratic Dilemmas of Census Categorization in the Post-Civil Rights Era
Melissa Nobles
3. Knowledge and the Politics of Ethnic Identity and Belonging in Colonial and PostColonial States
Bruce Berman
4. Defining Indigeneity: The Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997 in the
Philippines, Representation and Indigenous Identity
Villia Jefremovas and Padmapani L. Perez
5. Defining Indigeneity in Latin America: How to Classify Afro-descendants?
Juliet Hooker
6. Domestic and International Norms for Assessing Indigenous Identity
Avigail Eisenberg
7. The Challenge of Naming the Other in Latin America
Victor Armony
8. From Immigrants to Muslims: How the French Politics of Integration Transformed
Secularism
Eléonore Lépinard
9. Beliefs” and “religion”: categorizing cultural distinctions among East Asians
André Laliberté
10. Assessing Religious Identity in Law: Sincerity, Accommodation and Harm
Lori G. Beaman
11. Reasonable Accommodations and the Subjective Conception of Freedom of
Conscience and Religion
Jocelyn Maclure
•
Forthcoming UBC Press Fall 2011